The Idea and the Practice of Prison Abolition

Abolitionist theory combines both ideas and struggle into a vision for a better world. This review of Tommie Shelby’s book “The Idea of Prison Abolition” argues that Shelby’s critique of prison abolition separates out philosophical ideas from those born of struggle, and by doing so, necessarily sells the idea of prison abolition short. Using two examples of abolitionist on-the-ground practices connected to the work of Angela Davis--community bail funds and collective defense campaigns--this review argues that the collective work of experimenting with and prefiguring a world without prisons is part of what gives prison abolition its moral and empirical content.